Cup

1788

Benjamin Pierpont
American, 1730–1797
Boston

Boston goldsmith and jeweler Benjamin Pierpont made this cup—part of a set of four identical vessels—that was given by Deacon Obadiah Dickinson (1704–1788) to the Church of Christ in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Dickinson was prominent in church and local affairs and also possessed extensive land holdings in the area. Puritan theology dominated the region, and the simple form of the cup along with the use of silver was symbolic of purity. The two handles on the vessel allowed the cup to be easily passed among the congregation’s communicants.

Status: On View, Gallery 166
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Benjamin Pierpont
Title: Cup
Place: Boston (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1788
Medium: Silver
Inscriptions: Engraved script inscription on side of cup: "The Gift of / Deacon Obadiah Dickinson / to / the Church of Christ in Hatfield / 1788" Marked on bottom in shaped cartouche: "B*PIERPON"
Dimensions: 14.6 × 7 × 9.5 cm (5 3/4 × 7 × 3 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Antiquarian Society through the Mrs. Edwin A. Seipp Fund
Reference Number: 1948.105
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/62542/manifest.json

E.A. Jones, The Old Silver of American Churches, (Letchworth, England, 1913), p.212 (ill.).
The Antiquarian Society of the Art Institute of Chicago: A Pictorial Review of Notable Objects in its Collections and Notes on the Society’s Aims and History (Art Institute of Chicago, 1951), no. 53 (ill.).
David A. Hanks, “American Silver at The Art Institute of Chicago,” The Magazine Antiques, 98:418–422 (Sept. 1970),. fig. 7, p. 420 (ill.).
Harold Osborne, ed., The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975) p. 743 (ill.).

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, American Church Silver of the 17th and 18th Centuries with a few Pieces of Domestic Plate, July – Dec, 1911, p. 99, cat. 824, 825, 826 or 827.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Antiquarian Society: The First One Hundred Years, Apr. 23–June 19, 1977, cat. 181, p. 150 (ill.).

Deacon Obediah Dickenson (1704-1788); given to the First Congregational Church, Hatfield, MA. Francis P. Garvan (1875-1937), New York; The Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University, New Haven, CT by 1948; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1948.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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